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Livin'
With The Sims
theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's The Sims,
asking the inevitable quesiton, "is The Sims the first step toward a virtual
life where everyone is Swedish?"

Vol.
2, Issue 11
February 8, 2000

reetings.
I bet youre hitting that refresh key right now because theres
no way this edition of Thinking Outside The Box is a new one.
Well for that I have to apologize. You see the absence of updates
had been mainly to do with the fact Ive been pretty busy
working on Quake III Arena. Now that its been wrapped
up Im on to our next project. For me its pretty light
work so Im freed up to start doing regular TOTB columns
again. Thus workload is one reason I havent updated. The
other is just plain disgust.

Steed.
The man, the myth, the photoshop filter. (60k)

Yep. I
said disgust. Ive been at id now for almost three and a
half years. During that time Ive ridden the roller coaster
as Ive been acclimated to this phenomena called the Internet
and virtual community of the Quake-related fan base. At
first I dove into the fray like I always do with a smile, a roar,
pecs flexed arms stretched wide as I flung myself into battle.
I hacked and slashed my way through the dreaded .Plan
Wars, bludgeoned my way past the Crackwhore Skirmish and survived
the wrath of the rabid horde of Angry Mongol Mod Makers. But alas
my extroverted, straightforward, confrontational attitude proved
too much for the mainly conservative leadership on the net and
my voice at id was squelched. No more Plans for You, Keyser Soze!

Not a
problem. Enter loonygames. Lets do some thinking outside
the box for awhile shall we? Editorials and tutorials seemed to
work better for those panty-bunchers and people seemed to breath
easier knowing that Steed was on a leash (wait...has he cussed
yet?). Alas, work caught up with me and I had to suspend and eventually
stop updating TOTB. Silence allowed me to remain free of distractions.
Then I made the mistake of reading a few message boards. Uh...yeah.
We all know how I feel about that. Now I avoid the forums unless
Im led there by the nose to enlighten the unenlightened.
Fine, no problem. Disgust didnt form even then. I now realize
the people living on the message boards are simply harmless entertainers
who hopefully arent reading up on how to make mail bombs
or hoarding weapons in their parents basement.

Nope.
Disgust settled in when I started reading reviews of Q3A.
Disgust settled in when in a thunderous smack in the face moment
of revelation I realized just how spoiled certain people have
become in the community. Now dont even think Im going
to name names or name sites. Its not that I dont have
the testicular fortitude, I just dont have the time to do
the research and mention everyone whose opinion I value less than
the telemarketer who called me this morning. Maybe one day I will
make that list and offend everyone equally. Its just not
worth it, though.

Suffice
to say Im happy so many people decided that another game
that came out the same time as Q3A kicked major boo-tay
in the gameplay department (read: Congratulations UT).
That games unsurprising popularity isnt what filled
me with revulsion. Its the point that I realized NO ONE
could be pleased. NO ONE. Think about it. I used to make art with
DPaint on a 386.25 and watched the transition from games being
on eight floppy disks go to one CD. Those were the days that some
people predicted wed not get past 55 MHz for at least another
year...a 486.55 that is. Back then people were easy to please.
No hardware acceleration. Sprites were still representing people,
aircraft and starcraft. Now today there exists a huge range of
sophistication from hardware to software preferences and opinions.